Adventure is a requisite part of each of our lives. Except for those who can be inspired within four walls without stepping outside. But for most, the journey of seeking what is past their front door is a fundamental desire. Paulo Coelho, once wrote, “The danger of adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort” so the question remains if the danger is really worth it?
Jess Tinsley is a regular 24-year-old who loves to go on hikes and adventures. On a Sunday evening of August 2019, Jess went on a hike in the woods along with some friends. The turn of events that followed next was something the trio could not have imagined even in their wildest dreams.
24-Year-Old Mom
Jess Tinsley, a resident of Durham, England is a 24-year-old mom to a beautiful daughter named “Emmie”. Her partner, Kieran, shares an amazing relationship with her daughter. Jess had Emmie quite young and raised her on her own until Kieran came into their lives. She could not have asked for a more perfect man. He cares for them immensely and Emmie has adored him since day one.
Adventure Lover
Jess loved her little family more than anything in the world. However, it wasn’t always the case. Before Emmie was born, Jess had a completely different life. She used to go on endless adventures. She always had the ‘travel bug’ and loved to go on hikes and camping trips. Her favorite hikes were trails in the woods that climbed up the hills.
Change Of Priorities
A woman’s priorities change when she becomes a mother. And Jess was no different. After Emmie came into her life, Jess couldn’t go on carefree trips like that anymore. She was raising her daughter alone and going on hikes or climbs was the last thing on her mind.
A Welcomed Change
Things changed for better when Jess met Kieran. He was the support she had been longing for all this while. It was as if he came into the picture and everything fell into the right place. He took care of things she would worry about and never complain. And once Emmie grew up a bit, Kieran could take Jess on little hikes again.
The Evening Stroll
It was a cloudy Sunday evening. Jess was in her front yard sipping some tea. She had just finished up her chores and was waiting for Kieran to come home. They had planned an evening stroll along with their friend Dan. The weather was a bit too cloudy for her taste but she was excited. Jess’s train of thought came to a halt as she heard Kieran’s car pull up in the driveway.
Babysitting Duties
Jess had already called the baby sitter for Emmie, who was already kind of sleepy so the sitter will have an easy job tonight. She made her way to the car and sat in the front seat, Dan was already chilling in the back. They were all quite excited as they haven’t done this in a while.
Hamsterley Forest
The location they chose for their evening stroll was the Hamsterley Forest which lay about 15 miles from their home in Newton Aycliffe. It covers more than 2000 miles, which makes it the largest forest in Durham. It is also chosen as Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which represents those preserved areas that are smaller than national parks but equally important.
First Timers
The trio had never been to Hamsterley Forest before but they were not anxious because the forest had many trails for cycling, horse riding and hiking to make exploring accessible for visitors. After speculating for some time, the group of friends settled on marking a five miles circle which would bring them back to where they started the hike.
Starting The Trail
The trio began their stroll with a burst of energy. The fall leaves carpeted the trail, their shoes crushing them with each step. The sun was peeking from behind the clouds and the chilly breeze made Jess relieved that she brought her sweater. The trail was beautiful, no doubt. Jess was already ready to plan another stroll here.
Wandering Off
Time wore off as they wandered through the forest. Eventually, when the sun looked like it is beginning to set, the group realized they have been walking continuously and wandered off much further than they intended to. Kieran recommended they pick up their pace if they want to reach back before the sun goes down.
Endless Trail
It had now been roughly two hours since they started their walk, and it was starting to bother them how much time it is taking to finish it. Plus their remote location in the woods meant there is no cell reception to check the distance. They were just walking endlessly on this trail and had no idea where they are or where they are headed.
Eerie Silence
The evening was now wearing off and darkness was descending around them. The speckled shade of the trees seemed so inviting all those moments ago. Now the air was just filled with an eerie silence, except for the echoing sound of their feet on the damp ground. Feeling tired was not an option, they had to keep going.
Finding A Map
Another hour into the trail, the trio luckily stumbled upon a map of the area. It was completely dark now and the weather was getting worse. Dan began to read the map to determine where they were and how much further they need to go but to his dismay, what he saw on the map was something else altogether.
A Different Path
The trio had fallen off the trail and wandered off to a path that was 12 miles long. To top that, they didn’t know where on the path they were at the moment. Jess was ready to have a mental breakdown right there. How on earth will they ask someone to get them if they didn’t know where they were?
No Service
Kieran knew they have to come up with a plan quickly as it is already dark here. They had to call for help but there is no way they would get cell reception in these dense woods. So the most important thing to do right away was to find a clearing of some kind where they could hope to get some network on their phones.
The Empty Field
After what seemed like hours of searching, the trio managed to locate a clearing in the woods. The three of them immediately reached for their phones and were relieved to see that they managed to get a network here. Now the question was how to tell the emergency services where they were? There was no way to locate them in this empty field.
Dialing 999
They didn’t plan on being stranded there all night so it was decided they are going to call first then figure it out as they talk about how they could locate them. Jess took her phone and dialed 999, the emergency helpline number. The operator picked up on the second ring asking what their emergency was. Jess gave a nervous glance to the boys, afraid to speak up.
Please Help
Kiaran gave a confident nod to Jess, encouraging her to speak. Jess started explaining everything to the operator, “Hi, we are stranded in the woods. We were on a hike but somehow lost our way and now we don’t know where we are or where to go. The weather is getting really bad I think it might rain and it’s so dark.. please help.”
A Spare Phone
The operator on the call understood there is no way for Jess to tell her where she is at the moment and to send rescue services they need their exact location. So she asked Jess if she has cell reception on any other phone apart from hers so that she can follow instructions while staying connected on call.
Follow The Instructions
Jess took her boyfriend’s phone and was ready to follow the operator’s instructions but what the operator said next took Jess by surprise. The operator asked her to download an app. It took Jess a moment to realize this was not some stupid joke and the operator was dead serious. She was supposed to download an app on her phone.
The Three Words
Dan and Kieran were really confused as to what was happening, Jess was busy downloading some app on Kieran’s phone as per the operator’s instruction. Jess suddenly speaks into the phone, “Kicked. Converged. Soccer” Dan and Kieran had their brows furrowed in confusion. What is Jess talking about? Why is she talking in codes? What is happening?
Hanging Up
Jess hung up the call thanking the operator and was met by the confused faces of Dan and Kieran. They had so many questions it baffled her mind plus Kieran was angry she hung the phone, “How will we manage to call them back now?” Jess told him it won’t be necessary as help is on the way. Jess took a deep breath and began to explain to them what happened.
The Rescue
Jess told the boys that because she said those three words, the rescue team will now be able to find their precise location and come help. The boys were bewildered by what is happening. What did she mean by Kicked Converged and Soccer? What kind of code is that and how will it locate them?
The App
The app which Jess downloaded is called ‘What3words’. It is a location tracking app that can detect the device’s location as precise as within 10 square feet. The user can then communicate their location by telling the unique set of three words for their location. And that is the “code” that Jess told the operator.
Waiting For The Squad
“So now the rescue squad is on their way to our location” Jess finished explaining. The boys could not believe their ears. None of them was aware that an app such as this one existed and only they knew how thankful they were today for its existence. The trio began to see hope again, the hope of sleeping in their beds tonight and for Jess and Kieran, the hope to see Emmie.
Help Is Coming
It had been almost an hour since they spoke with the operator who informed them that the rescue squad is on its way. But still, there was no sign. Their worst fear also came true, it had started to rain heavily. So now they were cold, tired and hungry, struggling to find shade underneath the trees. Jess was on the verge of crying her heart out but she knew she has to be strong, help is coming.
Spotting The Hikers
Another half an hour had passed, the three of them were utterly drenched by now. Jess was huddled up between Dan and Kieran when she heard a vehicle coming their way. She thought she is dreaming when she spotted a headlight. Is this happening? Have they been found?
Locating The Trio
Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue team members were able to locate the trio extremely precisely. They were instructed to not move unless and until the team reaches them. The rescue squad was able to use the what3words code against their system and send a text to Kieran’s phone which ultimately helped them in mapping the directions to their location.
Happy And We Know It
The trio was thrilled to see the vehicles rushing in to get them. The three of them jumped to their feet and ran outside into the clearing. Jess mumbled every prayer to every God she possibly could. She could not believe they get to go home. Emmie’s little face came to her mind and she finally let herself shed a tear, but it was out of happiness.
Lucky Survivors
The leader of the rescue squad explained how they were anxious because of the weather but thankfully they managed to find them in time, “We were really happy with the result, which was very effective and everyone was well, albeit a bit cold. They were lucky to have had a phone signal as it’s normally really bad in the forest.”
The Inspiration
So how does this app, which saved the hikers’ lives, work so precisely? The software for the app was developed by Chris Sheldrick. The inspiration behind this idea came from his rural upbringing in the English countryside. It all started with the problem of a postcode.
Postcode Problems
The postcode of an area is used to denote a specific number to that area to sort out mails and deliveries. As a kid, Chris recalled receiving mails meant for other people or standing on the road to flag down delivery trucks. Because the issue behind postcodes is that it did not point to a particular house, it covered a large area with numerous houses.
Growing Up
Sheldrick grew up to work in the music industry for almost a decade. However, the same problem persisted even then. He faced problems when bands needed to meet at a particular venue for concerts or when musicians and singers will find themselves on the other part of the town instead of the correct location. This became a substantive reason behind Sheldrick’s frustration.
Constant Bad Days
According to the What3words website, “Sheldrick had some pretty bad days, like in Italy, when the driver unloaded all the band equipment an hour north of Rome instead of an hour south of Rome. And a slightly worse day, when the keyboard player called him and said, ‘Chris don’t panic but we may have sound-checked at the wrong wedding’”
Complicated Method
Sheldrick came up with the idea of using longitude and latitude to map out the exact location. But as you can guess, it didn’t work at all. It is difficult to remember numbers as it is, so the more the digits in a number the harder it is to recall. While the idea might be complicated, it wasn’t necessarily a bad one. So Sheldrick began to think of ideas that would simplify this method.
Something Intuitive
In the year 2013, Sheldrick began to refine his idea with the help of a former pupil who was a maths whizz. They began to think about how to compress this 16 digit number of longitude or latitude and make it more user-friendly. They wanted to create a system that is as precise as a GPS but much more intuitive.
The Refined Idea
After brainstorming and discarding endless ideas, the idea for What3words was subsequently formulated at the back of an envelope. Sheldrick covered the map of the world with a grid consisting of fifty-seven trillion squares, each about 3 meters (10 feet) in size. Then each of these squares was granted a thread of three random words, providing each square with its unique identity.
Word Combination
It took them approximately forty thousand words and their different combinations to cover all the squares on the grid of the world. A few examples of these combinations are, “Sulk. Held. Raves.” which indicates a location inside the Whitehouse. The biggest achievement of this app is its accuracy.
Profoundly Precise
For instance, if you want to navigate within the Whitehouse, you will be able to do that with this app. “Takes. Ritual. Skins.” takes you to the kitchen whereas “Pump. Reveal. Firmly.” will take you to the library, in fact, it is so precise that out of the 57 trillion squares, six of them are in the Whitehouse library alone, so it can point out a particular section within the library.
Not Global Yet
What3Words is not the universal navigation tool yet, however, it is slowly but surely catching up. In Mongolia, the app is used by postal services for executing deliveries. Also, Lonely Planet utilizes this app to acknowledge geographical attractions. Plus, Mercedes Benz has combined this app with its car navigation system.
Marvelous Growth
The What3Words company now has over a hundred employees at its headquarters in London or “Filled. Count. Soap.” which points to the front door of their office. The employees are constantly working hard to improve and develop this system even further. Their goal is to become the ultimate mode of communication between people for pointing out locations.
Emergency Services
The emergency services crew believes that What3Words is the perfect tool for making their job more effective. The app will eliminate the uncertainty of where they need to go, pointing them to the precise location, exactly like in Jess’ and her friends’ case. There are approximately thirty-five UK emergency services that are already signed up with the app.
Fighting Wildfires
Another thing What3Words has proved to be helpful in is fighting wildfires. Instead of starting from one point outside the forest and then trying to get directed from there, the fighters now know the exact position and plan out their route themselves in the fastest and most effective way.
Don’t Need Network
The best part is this app does not need cell service to function. Sheldrick described this feature is particularly helpful for people who are stranded somewhere with no reception. But the question is, how will a person communicate his location to the emergency services if they don’t have reception? Shedrick had an answer for that.
Reaching The Location
He explained, “Say there was a group of hikers up on the mountains and one of them gets injured. They don’t have a signal to make a call but they can find out exactly where they are. They will know their unique set of three words. One of them can then run out to get help and bring them back to their injured friend’s precise location.”
Hostage Girl
One of the more extreme cases in which this app helped someone was when a girl, who was held hostage by her kidnapper, managed to send her unique three words to the police and ask for help. The officers were able to reach the location much faster now that they had the unique three words, compared with when they would have to track her down on her own which was a time taking process.
Saving Lives
The amazing thing is Sheldrick created this app with his frustration about postcodes and addresses. He had no idea it would end up saving lives. In recent times, the app has successfully saved many people, a woman with a broken car in the middle of nowhere, a man who fell down a riverbank and many more. This app helped the world with more than just precise directions for sure.
Endless Praises
Jess only has endless appreciation for the app and its creator. She says she will never forget those three words that saved her life. She can’t thank the app creators and the mountain rescue team enough. They made it possible for her to return to her daughter and that means more to her than anything else in this world.
Better Safe Than Sorry
The other hikers, Kieran and Dan, were extremely grateful to the app developer team and rescue squad as well. They find themselves to be one of the lucky ones who were able to escape such an unfortunate situation. The experience has put off Jess from making any further plans at the Hamsterley Forest for now. But maybe one day she will gather the courage again and complete that forest trail.